National

The U.S. has said it wants to reach a deal by the end of October to keep some members of its military in Afghanistan. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Kabul meeting with President Hamid Karzai to work out an agreement, but two main points seem to be standing in their way.

The new online marketplaces are now in their second week, and almost across the board, it's been a rocky start. But just how rocky depends on the state and how many navigators have been hired to help people sign up.

Cordova, Ala., got hit not by one but two tornadoes on the same day in 2011. The twisters destroyed much of the town, and in the past two years, people living there have struggled with how best to rebuild what was a dying town.

A quiet block on the city's northwest side appeared to be taken over by villagers from the mountains of southern Poland. As the festivities began, the bride's anxious father was desperate to make room for five wooden carriages, 12 horses and the band.

Donald Eugene Miller Jr. of Ohio is legally dead. But here's the thing: He's actually alive. Miller disappeared in 1986 and was declared dead in 1994. When he went in front of a judge this week to get his status clarified, Miller learned that declarations of death can only be rescinded within three years.

Doctors said Erik Schei would be a "vegetable" for the rest of his life — and he was only 21. He had been shot in the head on his second tour in Iraq. But his parents choose to bring him home and give him another chance at life. Now, they say he's smiling every day and grateful to be alive.

The craft-brewing industry has long been a male-dominated world. But that's starting to change. This weekend, several female-owned craft breweries are favored to take home the most prestigious awards at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Twitter icon Feminist Hulk is pummeling away at the shutdown's funding threats to WIC, the federal program that provides essential food aid to pregnant women and mothers with young children. And she's using her nearly 74,000 followers to help – setting up an online resource to help families left in the lurch find baby food and formula.

A review of clinical trials using vitamin D to build bone density in middle-aged women finds that it doesn't help. That may be because those women aren't generally low on calcium and that D helps the body absorb calcium in the gut only if it's seriously lacking. It may do more good in the elderly.

President Obama and Senate Republicans met at the White House on Friday, Day 11 of the partial government shutdown, but there was no breakthrough to reopen the government and keep the country from defaulting on its debts.

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